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final resultRevisions galore! After compiling another round of revisions, the
students gathered around all the characters to decide what forms must be
grouped and unified. For example, all the bottom left sides of the
characters must be flat (the angles were all over the board). C,G,O, and
zero must have the same curvature. All top left serif must align and
correspond to the main axis of the typeface. The list was long . . .
much work was done to refine. The students then broke off into smaller
groups to work on refining like forms. During this phase the students
were also thinking about the final application and name of the typeface.
Names that surfaced as possibilities were Neat Meat, Stencizzle, Meat
Shop, Polygamy, Quite ok, and Chopshop. Chopshop was the one chosen so
that is the name of the typeface. The students felt that Chopshop
reflected the process, the nature, and the environment in which it was
created in. Next the final application had to be decided. Students
discussed that the application should reference the process,
reinterpretation of interpretations and interpretations of
reinterpretations (and so forth). Ideas in regard to the form were
T-shirts and salvage clothes (to be silkscreened), an installation at a
local cultural center, stenciling messages around the city, and less
permanent vandalism such as spraying on grass, dirt, etc. Moral issues
with vandalism surfaced and we decided as a group that government would
not be pleased with spraying the city with the new baby Chopshop.
Ultimately, the students decided to cut the type out of wood large
format - approx 8" x 10" for each letter - and take photos of the city
through the cut type. Off to the woodshop we go.